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7:50 a.m. M.
Monday, December 14, 2020
Youssef Afifi wrote:
Dr. Gad El-Qady, head of the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, announced that the world will witness a total solar eclipse on Monday at the end of the month of Rabi` Al-Akhir and at the conjunction of the month of Jumada Al -Awwal for the year 1442 AH.
The judge said in a statement today that this eclipse is the last lunar eclipse and eclipse phenomenon during the year 2020 AD, noting that it will not be seen in Egypt or the Arab region.
Dr. Usama Rahmeh, Head of the Sun Research Laboratory at the Institute, explained that this eclipse can be seen as a partial eclipse in (parts of Southwest Africa, South America, except the northern part, parts of Australia, the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Galapojos Islands – parts of Antarctica), and looks like a total eclipse in (Temuco, Villarrica, Chile), where the total eclipse covers an area of 90 km of wide and will take a period of two minutes and ten seconds, and at the height of the total eclipse, the disk of the moon covers about 103% of the entire disk of the sun.
Rahmeh added that the duration of the eclipse phenomenon from its beginning to its end will be approximately five hours and twenty minutes, noting that the phenomenon of the next total eclipse will be on December 4, 2021 AD.
Dr. Muhammad Gharib, professor of solar physics at the institute, added that a total eclipse is a type of solar eclipse that usually occurs when the moon, during its monthly cycle around the Earth, is in the infinitive phase at the end of the lunar month, and just before the birth of the new crescent, where the moon is located between the earth and the sun. , On the line of conjunction, which is the line connecting the centers of the earth and the sun or near it, and in its presence at or near one of the ascending or descending nodes.
He continued: In this case, the distance between the moon and the earth varies between 405 thousand km and 363 thousand km, and as a result of this change in dimension, the size of the moon changes outward for us, so when it is nearby, its size is large and covers the entire disk of the sun, so a total eclipse occurs.
The phenomenon of the solar eclipse is useful to ensure the beginning of the Hijri (lunar) months, since the solar eclipse occurs together, which means that the occurrence of a solar eclipse indicates the imminence of the birth of the new crescent moon and the center of the eclipse is the date of birth of the new moon.
It should be noted that the 21st century (2001-2100) will see 224 solar eclipses, including 77 partial eclipses, 72 annular eclipses, 68 complete eclipses, and 7 mixed eclipses.
